The move of McDonald’s HQ to the UK suggests the limit of the government’s ambition for Brexit. It looks increasingly likely that their plan is to turn the UK into a tax haven. And that means the only people likely to benefit from their vision for Brexit are the best off and those working in Read the Rest…

This letter was in the Guardian this morning: Mark Carney can himself do far more to bring about his desire for the rebalancing of the economy to help the “left behind” (Globalisation victims must now get a share of the gains, warns Carney, 6 December). In August the Bank of England announced a further £60bn of Read the Rest…

I am at a conference at Manchester Business School today. Prof Sheri Markose of Essex University has argued this morning that the UK is simply not investing enough in new capital formation to maintain an effective. The argument is fairly compelling. The following data on gross capital formation comes from the World Bank. First, for Read the Rest…

According to Bloomberg: Donald Trump’s election win sent a $2 trillion shock wave through global markets over the past month. That’s how much equities’ global market value has jumped. And given that, by definition, shares are owned by the wealthy it would be superficially easy to say that Trump has already rewarded the traditional wealth Read the Rest…

The FT has reported this morning that: The European Central Bank should retool its asset-purchase programme to fund a wave of new infrastructure spending across the continent, according to one of the world’s most powerful bond managers. Rick Rieder, global chief investment officer of BlackRock’s $1.6tn fixed income business, says the ECB …..has the opportunity Read the Rest…

I advised Joel Hills of ITN yesterday on a story that aired on their News at Ten last night. The essence of the story is that: Charlie Elphicke MP, a former tax lawyer, believes there’s evidence that while ordinary people are paying more income tax, the super-rich are still finding ways to shelter their money Read the Rest…

Mark Carney gave a speech yesterday in which he used this graph: As he put it: Over the past decade real earnings have grown at the slowest rate since the mid-19th Century Now, admittedly, growth has been sluggish: But there has been growth, and it has been unequally shared. This is Carney, again: In recent Read the Rest…

I’m pleased to say that the failure of the UK to regulate the companies it permits to be registered in this country is beginning to be notcied. After being a lone voice on the issue for many years I welcome this. Today Reuters report: To get an idea of how Britain allows individuals to hide Read the Rest…

As the Guardian notes: The tweet from Italy’s most rightwing xenophobe was enough to send a chill down any liberal democrat’s spine. In the face of a resounding defeat of centre-left prime minister Matteo Renzi, Northern League leader Matteo Salvini wrote: “Viva Trump, viva Putin, viva la Le Pen e viva la Lega!” I have Read the Rest…